Friday, February 28, 2014

And it turned out gorgeous! Oops, guess I'm keeping this one too!The making of this quilt top was totally random, just so I could use up strip pieces. It was a huge exercise of free form piecing, and you can read all about it here. What can I say, I do love a challenge!

Thank goodness the quilting wasn't as demanding as the piecing! Before I started any dense quilting, all the blocks were SID around the outside.

Then a pebble and S curve fill was quilted in all the white background.

I really wanted to practice motifs from Judi Madsen's book, Quilting Wide Open Spaces, but just couldn't put butterflies on a quilt intended for a baby boy! Not until I got done quilting that I decided to keep it. Guess I could have done butterflies after all!

For each block center, I use a different design based on a seed motif. Here are some that I came up with, to guide me when quilting. Not all of them got used.

And finally, to finish off the blocks, double outlines around the pieced edges gave them some stitching but not so much that they
got lost.

Here are the rest of the blocksIf you look closely at these pictures, you'll notice the binding is not white all around.

I also love seeing it in the clothing. Teams that need numbered jerseys have the patchwork on their bibs

and some even have patchwork in their clothing.

Just design with no color was enough to distract me, like the 'kiss and cry' area for the skaters

Isn't that a pretty background? Oh, and congratulations to this gentleman that won the mens skate--most fitting.After seeing so many awesome images of the patchwork, I'm feeling inspired to make my own. But then again, it's also fun to make quilts in my head! Or I could just order a T-shirt

but not sure how it would get here from Russia!What about you, feel inspired?

Saturday, February 15, 2014

I've been hard at work creating and sewing, with this top being an incredible challenge. It started with leftover cut strip pieces (from the last two quilts here), which I pieced around a square of plain pale blue. It's the one in the center. I liked that, but wanted more of the strip pieces to show. So I made some more, using bigger strip pieces. When I had six blocks, I put them up on the design wall, in a random fashion. And I liked that too.But to keep the randomness, some different shapes where needed to fill the odd areas. Made some rectangles, and the top started taking shape.Did I consider how I was going to sew this all together? Nope.

What was I thinking???This quilt top was not assembled in the usual fashion--make the blocks, sew them in a row, sew the rows together. No, this was, sew some white here, sew some white there, cut here, sew there. Lots of partial seams!

In this picture, I've got strips still attached because they'll be used somewhere further down the top. The whole thing was pieced by adding a block at a time.Here's some closeups of some of the more messy piecing!

Wish this was a bit cleaner, but I'm not willing to rip it out!This one is a bit better, but still messy.

I'm happy with how it turned out, and hey, I met my objective of using up the strip units. After two tops, this is all that's left

I'll post about the other top at a later time. It turned out really nice, and I want to write up a pattern for it.Until then, Happy Quilting!

Thursday, February 13, 2014

I'm spending the day being creative with leftovers. Sorry, it's not about food! It's those leftover strip pieces from last months' Book of the Month.

Being a frugal person, I can't just let these go to waste! I love the challenge of figuring out what to do with bits and pieces--remember Ripple Effect and Spin Off?

No different here! So, I've dreamed up a top, and a modern one at that, created with leftovers. And since I used up a couple of the fabrics--YEAH!--I'll rip some seams from a couple strip sets to get what I need.

Monday, February 10, 2014

I'm home from Phoenix, and ready to get back to a normal routine! While seeing new places is fun, it's also exhausting. Many times I've come home needing a vacation from my vacation! But this one included quilting--what could be better?

This was my first attendance at an AQS show. Phoenix was a bit smaller than Road2CA, but the convention center was new, and had lots of space and great lighting for all the beautiful quilts. It was also nice to see local vendors, and not a lot of repeats from Road.

The classes were in a separate building, which cut down on some of the crowding. All three of my classes with Judi Madsen were on HandiQuilter machines, typically two to a head. We worked on quilting designs from her new book, Quilting Wide Open Spaces.

Here are my classroom pieces.

From Fantabulous Fillers

where I learned to put the extra small curl in the circles. Sometimes I just have to be shown!

From the Simple Math Awesome Border class

Looks complicated but is really easy to do. Full directions on stitching this are in her book.

And from Quilting Templates Intensified, these little pretties.

I forgot to outline around the butterfly, so his antennae got lost in the background fill! But he's still pretty!And here we are after Friday's class,

Judi Madsen and Me

with her beautiful quilts in the background!

If you haven't looked at her book, do check it out. Along
with quilt patterns, all of the how-to's of these designs are there, which includes a CD for the butterfly and dragonfly templates.

Sunday, February 2, 2014

It's February, and time for another Book of the Month!This month I'll work from Judi Madsen's new book,Quilting Wide Open Spaces.

If you've followed me for a while, you'll know I am a big fan of Judi's work. Both she and Angela have had a huge influence on my longarm work. I'm attending the AQS show in Phoenix next week, and very excited to have three classes with Judi! So, whether I will follow one of her patterns or follow the quilting as my monthly project, I don't know yet. I'll decide after class!

And a big thank you to everyone for all of the wonderful comments regarding the quilt tops using the Bargello with a Twist book. There were many great suggestions, which, if I'd had more time, would have played with. But I will keep them in mind for other quilts. It was definitely a fun technique, as the instructions were very clear. So many possibilities with just one block!

Now for the winner of the Connecting Threads Essential cotton thread, as determined by the random number generator

Commentor #9, which is Ann Dunn,

Ann Dunn January 29, 2014 at 10:04 PM

I'm liking the addition of the yellow...it makes the quilt pattern pop. Only two days left...no pressure.

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About Me

Hi! I'm Susan, a quilter who loves to create and inspire! Contact me at quiltfabrication@gmail.com